The Mediating Effect of Awareness of Social Services on the Relationship between Social Participation and Social Service Use Among Older Adults

Background and Purpose: The growing proportion of older adults and shifting structure of households point to decreasing familial caregiving for older adults in Korea. As a result, Korean older adults may rely on formalized support via social services to assure their health and well-being more than ever before. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has created unique challenges related to the offering of social services for older adults. Services integral to the health and well-being of older adults were shuttered to curtail the spread of the virus. In this context, social participation and awareness of social services may be important factors in shaping social service use among older adults. However, researchers have yet to examine awareness as a mediator in the relationship between social participation and use. Thus, we sought to examine awareness as a mediator in the relationship between social participation and social service use among Korean older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: The current study utilized data drawn from Korean older adults aged 65 and over captured using the 2020 Seoul Welfare Survey conducted in Seoul, South Korea during the COVID 19 pandemic (n = 545). Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted by using SPSS 25 and Hayes (2017) PROCESS macro was used to examine the mediating effect of awareness between social participation and social service use in the sample.

Results: We found moderate levels of social participation and awareness and low levels of service use among Korean older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both social participation and awareness of services related to social service use (r=.18, p<.01; r=.11, p<.05). Results of the hierarchical linear regression indicated that increased social participation was associated with increased social service use upon controlling for socio-demographic variables (β = .20, p<.001). Results of the mediation analysis, however, revealed that awareness did not emerge as a mediator between social participation and social service use among the sample.

Conclusion and Implications: Our findings offer a foundation for understanding the relationship between social participation and social service use among Korean older adults during the COVID- 19 pandemic. We encourage social workers supporting older adults throughout and beyond the pandemic to dismantle barriers to social participation using technology to increase service use. Increased service use, in turn, is anticipated to increase health and well-being among this vulnerable group.